Cordkillers 105 - Sportskillers

Would you pay $8 for ESPN standalone? $20? $36? Can ESPN subscribe in a cord-cutting world? Also, the fallout from Netflix's International expansion and Apple TV gets a podcasts app again. With special guest Justin Robert Young.

Netflix Is In 'No Hurry' to Go to China- NFLX SUBS- INTN’L - Added 4.04mm (est. 3.5)- US - Added 1.56mm subs us (below 1.65 forecast) from 1.9mm last year- (earnings revenue rose 22.8% 7 cents a share (est. 1.82 2 cents)- VPN Crackdown- Australia’s uFlix said users reported VPN block, had a fix in place in a day- Indonesia- Netflix needs to get a business license as a local content provider within a month- Firm must open an office in Jakarta, hire local employees, and subject itself to tax regulations- CHINA- “We have a very long term look. It could be a many years discussion or it could happen faster than that. We’re going to take our time.”- “And so, our view is, if we’re looking out for the business a decade from now, we should be very patient and continue to build those relationships, and listen and learn.”

Apple is ‘frustrated’ by TV streaming negotiations, says ESPN - Designer from Chomp (spp discovery) worked on the new interface for Apple TV and is now leaving.“I want to create not just a killer product, but my own iconic company,”- [Apple is] creating a significantly advantageous operating system and a great television experience,""We are big proponents of believing it would be a fabulous place to sell some subscriptions.”

Forget Hollywood: Vimeo Will Just Fund Female Filmmakers Itself- Vimeo is expanding its funding of original content with a new effort called “Share the Screen” which will fund at least 5 projects in 2016 that would not normally get backed by Hollywood. The focus at first will be on female filmmakers. A short from SNL’s Aidy Bryant, Darby Forever will kick things off February 18th.

A cord-cutter's guide to watching the Super Bowl- And the Super Bowl itself will be streamed online for free as usual. This year you can get it on the Web or through the CBS Sports app which means you can watch it on Roku, Chromecast, Xbox One and Apple TV. PlayStation’s Vue service will have it. On mobile only Verizon has the rights to show it to you if you’re not on Wifi.

Netflix is fleshing out its film program with five new indie movies- ALSO Ryan Koo is making Amateur, a high school basketball drama; Alistair Legrand is directing Clinical, a psychiatric thriller; Osgood Perkins' I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House is a spooky ghost story; finally, Gerard McMurray's Underground is a fraternity hazing drama.

Greetings from Wisconsin! I loved the discussion about VLC last week and it's uses, legal or otherwise. I'm writing because I wanted to give a good example of how I use VLC every day and not for pirate content.

I think Tom said it best last week that the main function of VLC is to play whatever content is thrown at it. And that's how I treat it. I'm a Producer / Director at a video production company and I deal with many many different formats and sizes of videos every day. I love that VLC can at least preview any weird things that lands in my inbox. But, also I turn my clients onto it if they are struggling to play something. Even for simple playback in meetings, VLC is a great open source tool. I used to AirPlay my laptop to the Apple TV and then play videos via VLC, so I'm excited for a native VLC app on Apple TV.

Another example of open source software we use everyday is Handbrake. I know Handbrake is primarily used as a way to strip away copyright protection on DVDs and such, but we use it to rip files out of Final Cut down to usable sizes to share that content with clients. Sure, there are other softwares out there that do that and it's built in natively to many non-linear editing software, but no one does it better than Handbrake, in my opinion.

Same with VLC. They have really nailed that streamlined video playback with none of the girth that comes with Windows Media Player or Quicktime.

Thanks,- Trevor

Netflix in Saudi ArabiaI was happy using Netflix in Saudi Arabia. I had no problems watching the shows that I wanted from my hotel room. Most of my queue and several movies that are no longer available in the US were available. I even watched part of Hot Girls Wanted -- I expected shows like this to be blocked. Note that there are no movie theaters in the kingdom. Movies in Kuwait were heavily censored. So, I was shocked to find so many things available and not noticeably censored on Netflix.

Previously, I used VPN to watch shows while in KSA and India. This was a pain because the network would frequently drop for a few seconds. That would cause my VPN to disconnect and I'd have to reset it to continue my movie. Now, when it drops, I just run off the buffer until it reconnects.

When Netflix announced that they would block VPN overseas, I thought that I would have to change to a different service. From this experience, I am happy to stay with Netflix."

- Jim

Hey guys, thanks for all the cord killing advice and entertainment! I've been a cord killer for almost 5 years in Canada. The cost of cable/satellite was too much and I refused to pay it. I was left with Netflix and other dubious methods of streaming. Just recently Shomi and Cravetv became available in Canada without a cable subscription. I can finally watch most of the shows you guys spoil weekly on spoilering time. It's about time Canada started to catch to the US when it comes to streaming entertainment. Between Shomi, Cravetv and Netflix it's under $30/month. A guy can't ask for much better than that!!

- Ian from Canada

An emailer last week tagged his question with how his household distribution of streaming services looked... i'd be fascinated to see how this looks over the whole audience of cordkillers.. not sure how to collect it, but i'll throw you my stats pulled off my router

36% Google Play10% netflix7% hulu1% youtube1% amazon prime

Of course this is based on total bytes, not time.. so an optimized service may stream video to me for longer, but use less bytes, not accurately portrayed by my router. But for argument sake, you could assume these big players are similar (probably)